Search results

Several interventions have been developed to address children's resistance and/or refusal to have contact with a parent following separation and divorce. There remains little agreement about how best to evaluate the success of these approaches. To explore the experiences of parents in the Overcoming Barriers Program (OCB), an online survey was distributed to all previous participants. Of the 40 parents who completed the survey at least six months after attending OCB, findings suggest mixed results. Benefits of OCB were more pronounced when changes were made to the coparenting relationships. Improvements in the coparenting relationship were specifically related to children's spending more time with both parents and better parent–child outcomes postintervention. Findings suggest that both the quality of parent–child relationships and the time that the children spend with both parents are associated with reported improvements in the cooperative coparenting relationship as a result of attending OCB. Implications are discussed in terms of lessons learned for developing, delivering, and evaluating similar programs for strained parent–child relationships.

The third edition of Dr. Allan Barsky's (2017) book entitled Conflict Resolution for the Helping Professions: Negotiation, Mediation, Advocacy, Facilitation and Restorative Justice is reviewed based on content, style, and relevance to the field of conflict resolution. The third edition offers an expanded exploration of conflict resolution across practice settings, making it an instructive read for diverse professionals interested in learning how to best help others resolve conflict. The scaffolding structure of the text, the problem‐solving approach embedded into the presentation of the materials, and the use of real‐life examples makes this an important source for educators and trainers in the field of conflict resolution.

Attachment theory has recently been used as a framework for exploring specific processes in couple relationships. This conceptual article explores assessment and treatment options for high-conflict parents that are consistent with adult attachment theory. Divorce affects a significant number of families, but only a small portion of divorces are considered "high conflict." For these parents, fear of abandonment, fear of loss, and fear of being devalued increases both boundary ambiguity and maladaptive emotional responses post divorce. Implications for practice are proposed, including the early identification of high-conflict tactics as attachment behaviors and more emotionally focused collaboration between mental health professionals and lawyers to help recognize and respond to unresolved emotional issues when dealing with high-conflict families.

Social work researchers, educators, and doctoral students who are interested in systematic reviews will find the step-by-step format of this book invaluable for conducting their reviews both in the form of rapid evidence assessments and in high-quality critical reviews

Parental Alienation: Science and Law is a book that brings together known supporters of parental alienation theory to review the definitions, prevalence, consequences and interventions for treating cases where parental alienation has been identified as the dominant cause of parent‐child contact problems. The book provides a review of published literature that favors parental alienation theory and highlights topics and issues that are central to the promotion of parental alienation in the family courts. The book is purposely written with the aim to educate about parental alienation and to debunk the detractors (including sections that specifically refute opposing claims).

The surge in information and communication technologies (ICT) has provided alternative opportunities for maintaining parent–child contact postseparation. This article highlights findings from a survey study of 103 legal and mental health professionals who shared their views on the benefits and drawbacks of the use of ICT in parent–child contact postseparation. Results revealed a significant increase in the use of ICT as an enhancement tool for maintaining parent–child relationship in today's modern families. Professionals reported the need to develop specific engagement protocols to help mitigate and reduce concerns related to high conflict, safety, privacy, and unintended consequences related to the use of ICTs. We provide practice suggestions based on the study results that address key factors to consider when determining the use of technology in the facilitation of parent–child relationships.

Within the last decade, the term "access to justice" has grown in popularity among legal commentators, scholars, family justice reformers, government policy makers, and the media. But with all of this new attention, there remains no common understanding or definition of access to justice and its potential implications for children and families in domestic relation courts. The purpose of this cross‐sectional online survey was to explore the meaning of access to justice according to legal, mental health, and dispute resolution professionals in various countries. The sample included 442 respondents (e.g., judges, lawyers, custody evaluators, mediators, family court services, court administrators, parent educators, etc.) from seven countries. Of the total respondents, 398 participants completed the survey (response rate of ninety percent). The majority of participants defined access to justice as the ability of disputants to seek and obtain a remedy through formal (e.g., the courts) or informal (e.g., mediation) institutions and services for resolving disputes. Noteworthy differences were reported, however, between the views of legal and mental health professionals, where the latter most likely viewed access to justice as a legal issue, while the former focused on alternative approaches outside of the legal system to resolve family disputes. Implications for family court reforms are discussed.

The focus of this study was to systematically review the content of all 1,778 articles published in Family Court Review (FCR) during the past 50 years to explore whether these articles helped to advance the journal's core values. The findings suggest that FCR has focused on a rich diversity of legal and social issues impacting children and families. FCR has evolved into a leading source for interdisciplinary communication among mental health and legal professions, with growing emphasis on international collaboration and an increasing emphasis on empirical evidence to guide practice, policy, and future research.


FCR has demonstrated a long‐standing commitment to the interdisciplinary nature of family law.
Published authors in FCR increasingly represent a widening array of professionals from diverse geographical areas.
Through the publication of current material, evocative discussions, standards of practice, and empirical studies, FCR has demonstrated a commitment to the professionals and families served by the family courts.

Objectives: This qualitative synthesis explores the voices of children in the context of child custody disputes over the last 20 years. The purpose was to (1) systematically retrieve qualitative studies to explore children's views and preferences in the context of decision making postseparation and divorce and (2) explore how children's voices are being heard or not. Method: Qualitative studies were identified through a systematic retrieval process using an inclusion and exclusion criteria. A meta-ethnographic approach was used for the qualitative synthesis of included studies. Results: Thirty-five qualitative studies were included in the final analysis, involving 1,325 children from 11 countries. Conclusions: Findings reveal that children generally want to be engaged in the decision-making process regarding custody and access, even if they are not making the final decisions. Implications for social work practice and policy are discussed, including providing space for children's voices within the context of this work.

Globally, parents and caregivers of children with autism have been particularly impacted by the recent changes due to COVID-19. Reduced access to schools, community supports, and therapeutic services makes parenting more challenging during the pandemic, and especially for parents with children with autism and who are experiencing family breakdown. There remains little guidance to assist coparenting autistic children during COVID-19 after separation and divorce. This brief paper summarizes emerging issues arising in clinical practice to offer recommendations for social work practice.

In this exploratory study, we analyze strategies presented by young children in the context of having their voices heard. We elicit first‐hand accounts of N = 113 5‐year‐old children's responses to rights‐based scenarios to identify their will‐expression strategies. We assess developmental factors including, emotional competence, social competence, IQ, and parenting style. Results indicate that the most common tactics involve verbal expression, followed by behavior‐avoiding strategies. Cluster analysis revealed that children who were more flexible in naming strategies were more advanced in socio‐emotional development but not in cognitive development.